Stocks Drop on Disappointing Data; Caterpillar Slides 4%

By Avi Salzman

The government released a raft of economic data Thursday morning and much of it was downright ugly, sending stocks lower in early trading.

U.S. index futures had been pointing upward before the releases, but began to shed those gains shortly after 8:30 a.m., and fell after the opening bell. The Dow was recently down 87 points.

The vital stats included:

First quarter GDP growth was revised down to 1.9% from the initial read of 2.2%,.

Weekly jobless claims rose by 10,000 to 383,000.

ADP private payrolls data indicated that businesses added 133,000 jobs in May, a 20,000-job improvement over April. But it calls into question whether tomorrow’s non-farm payrolls figure will meet the 170,000 gain that analysts had been expecting.

Chicago PMI fell to 52.7 from 56.2 in April, a particularly weak reading that RDQ Economics says “tilts the balance of the [regional manufacturing] indicators toward the weaker side.”

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The blog is written by Ben Levisohn, a former stock trader who has covered financial markets for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and BusinessWeek.